I watched Gamescom 2026 so you don’t have to — these 6 games are worth waiting for

Gamescom Opening Night Live goes by pretty quickly. In just a blink of an eye, you might miss a big reveal. Other times, you’re barely done with one intriguing game while another giant trailer drops immediately after to replace it. The 2026 show was particularly relentless, covering everything from established franchises to games I’d never heard of before Geoff Keighley introduced them.

So picking six that stood out wasn’t a simple task. There’s something for almost every kind of gamer. But some still had me thinking about them, even after the livestream ended. We did see a few familiar franchises, while many introduced new worlds that I’ll gladly sink dozens of hours into (probably more). Gamescom itself continues through August 30, so consider this my list of the six reveals that have impressed me most so far, rather than a final ranking of everything shown in Cologne.

The list is in no particular order, so here are the game trailers that earned their place on my watchlist.

ANANTA

I’ve been watching ANANTA for a while now, partly because every new trailer makes it increasingly difficult to describe without eventually saying “anime GTA.” NetEase and Naked Rain confirmed that ANANTA launches on January 15, 2027, for PS5, PC, iOS, and Android, while the latest showing introduced another city called Chongxiao alongside flying cars, hang gliders, new companions, and more of its kung fu-inspired combat.

What keeps drawing me back is the sheer amount of movement and chaos packed into its cities. Previous trailers have shown swinging between buildings and driving through crowded streets. Now, we got a deeper look at the urban sandbox mixed in with a stylized anime. A release date was also exactly what ANANTA needed. It has spent long enough seeming like an interesting concept. But now, the wait is less than half a year away from getting our hands on this game.

The Witcher 3 Remastered and Songs of the Past

The Witcher 3 is getting the Skyrim treatment. Despite being 11 years old at this point, it is emerging at Gamescom with enough new content to compete against brand-new games. CD Projekt Red announced The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered, which arrives September 29 as a free upgrade for existing owners. It brings visual improvements alongside changes to combat, movement, monster behavior, Roach handling, the skill tree, and other parts of a game that has already received a substantial current-gen overhaul once before. Existing owners also get Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine as part of the package.

Then CD Projekt followed it with Songs of the Past, a new full-scale expansion coming in 2027. Geralt travels to Letten, Dandelion’s homeland, for what CD Projekt is positioning as his final adventure before The Witcher 4 moves the spotlight to Ciri. The second

The second announcement is what really has gamers excited. Blood and Wine remains one of gaming’s great expansions, and CD Projekt returning to Geralt more than a decade later carries an enormous amount of expectation. Apparently, retirement isn’t going particularly well for him.

1001 Threads of Mizan

Fantasy games have spent decades mining the usual spots. The most popular is medieval Europe with Norse or Greek Mythology, and if the devs are feeling extra generous, Japanese folklore is a new fan-favorite. So watching the trailer for 1001 Threads of Mizan was genuinely refreshing. MBC Game Studio’s debut title draws from Arabic folklore and One Thousand and One Nights, following three heroes — Yusra, Malik, and Sufyan — as they attempt to stop an ancient jinn king.

It’s designed as a one-to-three-player action-adventure with drop-in co-op, enormous supernatural enemies, and a flying carpet that doubles as a major traversal and combat system. The carpet is a little too on the nose, but I won’t lie, this is one of the funniest forms of in-game transportation that I’ve seen in a long while. Watching characters tear across deserts and circle enormous creatures through the air gives Mizan’s movement system a lot more character.

The project is also coming from a newly established studio whose team includes developers with experience at BioWare, Ubisoft Montréal, Bungie, and Hi-Rez. It’s currently headed to PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, Steam, and the Epic Games Store, with cross-play planned across most supported platforms. No release date has been announced yet. But with every new studio, there’s plenty of reason to temper expectations.

Metro 2039

Metro Exodus let the series escape Moscow and discover that the apocalypse had plenty of horrors waiting outside the tunnels. And now, Metro 2039 is dragging us underground again, and its latest Gamescom footage makes that return look nastier than I expected. The new protagonist, known as The Stranger, operates in a Metro now dominated by Hunter’s Novoreich regime. 4A Games describes him as a traumatized exile rather than another Artyom-style idealist, and the Gamescom Renegade trailer leaned hard into that darker perspective.

The footage takes him through Sevastopolskaya, shows new environmental interactions and survival equipment, and once again hints that the Dark Ones may have unfinished business beneath Moscow. I’m particularly interested in how tactile everything looks. Weapon customization returns, while gadgets such as a UV light and breaching tool give the tunnels more opportunities for exploration. Metro 2039 arrives in February 2027 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. After watching this trailer, going back underground suddenly sounds like a very good idea.

PUBG: DED.NET

I wasn’t expecting a new live-service game emerging at Gamescom to have PUBG written across it. PUBG: DED.NET takes the franchise into a fictional version of 1990s Cascadia and combines multiplayer first-person shooting with roguelite progression. Losing a match doesn’t simply wipe the slate clean. Krafton wants you to scavenge and change your character, which will influence how you approach later fights.

Krafton’s own description includes using car doors as shields, playing dead, hacking payphones to steal money from opponents, and other odd gameplay mechanics. The setting mixes grunge and body horror, which is far removed from PUBG’s familiar military battle royale. Rather than coast on its PUBG: Battlegrounds paychecks, the studio has built something new. It’s a strange multiplayer title with a mix of different ideas.

There is no release date yet, though Krafton has opened registration for a closed beta. I need to see whether all that chaos actually forms a coherent shooter, because the trailer certainly got my attention.

Nodus Fall

HoYoverse opening Gamescom with Nodus Fall might have been my biggest tonal whiplash of the entire presentation. This is the company behind Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, and Zenless Zone Zero, games immediately recognizable for their colorful anime presentation. Nodus Fall heads into much darker fantasy territory, placing players in the role of Weavers battling enormous divine and mythological creatures across a world whose cosmic order has effectively collapsed.

The vibe it gave off reminded me of Monster Hunter and Elden Ring. We saw groups fighting giant beasts with oversized weapons, bows, and magic, alongside transformations into larger divine forms and coordinated attacks between players. The atmosphere is what really caught me.

HoYoverse hasn’t suddenly forgotten how to create elaborate characters and gigantic fantasy creatures, but the bright anime sheen has been replaced by stormy skies, darker colors and ruined environments. There is still a huge amount we don’t know, including its release date, platforms, progression, and how HoYoverse plans to monetize it.